Isaiah 11

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Isaiah 11

Continuing our reevaluation of Isaiah In Context, Chapter 11 features the well known:

“6 Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

The calf and the young lion shall browse together

With a little child to lead them.”

I’ve heard this appropriated to mean nothing more than the greeting of the stable animals at Jesus’s birth.  More commonly, I’ve heard it as a call to kindness and as a way of knowing that the world had gone completely surreal and thus Jesus’s return was nigh.

But this is what comes before it.

First, an introduction of Jesus (I have no objection this time) by his many titles and lineage, then

“3 and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord.

Not by appearances shall he judge,

Nor by hearsay shall he decide.

4 But he shall judge the poor with justice,

and decide aright for the land’s afflicted.

He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth,

And with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.

5 Justice shall be the band around his waist,

And faithfulness a belt upon his hips.”

Notice that the very next verse is 6, the one above.

So this passage is about Jesus striking down oppression of the poor, of eliminating all the divisions but also all the POWER of the rich and powerful, so that for all they are lions, the lambs need never fear that they will be hurt.  There will be an end of the suffering of the poor and the elite lording their power over the rest.

Yes, I suppose to many that does look like the apocalypse must be nigh.  A surreal world indeed.

Let’s work toward it, shall we?